


Snow-white and Rose-black

by Kastaka



Category: Fairy Tales (trad)
Genre: Yuletide, challenge:Yuletide 2008
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-25
Updated: 2008-12-25
Packaged: 2017-11-14 23:34:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/520672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kastaka/pseuds/Kastaka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I apologise for the blatant cheating by using the majority of the words from the original story, but this was done for Yuletide Madness and I think it's more interestingly twisted this way.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Snow-white and Rose-black

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aradiachiba](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aradiachiba/gifts).



> I apologise for the blatant cheating by using the majority of the words from the original story, but this was done for Yuletide Madness and I think it's more interestingly twisted this way.

 

 

There was once a poor widow who lived in a lonely cottage.

In front of the cottage was a garden wherein stood two rose-trees, one of which bore white and the other black roses. She had two children who were like the two rose-trees, and one was called Snow-white and the other Rose-black. Snow-white was as good and happy, as busy and cheerful, as ever a child in the world was, only Rose-black was a miserable, selfish child who sulked at the thought of the sun and the garden. Snow-white liked better to run about in the meadows and fields seeking flowers and catching butterflies; but Rose-black sat at home with her mother, and complained about the house-work, or read her awful poetry to her when there was nothing to do.

The two children were so fond of each other that they always held each other by the hand when they went out together, and when Snow-white said, "We will not leave each other," Rose-black answered, "Never so long as we live," and their mother would add, "What one has she must share with the other."

They often ran about the forest alone. Snow-white gathered red berries, and no beasts did them any harm, but came close to them trustfully. The little hare would eat a cabbage-leaf out of their hands, the roe grazed by their side, the stag leapt merrily by them, and the birds sat still upon the boughs, and sang whatever they knew.

No mishap overtook them; if they had stayed too late in the forest and night came on, they laid themselves down near one another upon the moss, and slept until morning came, and their mother knew this and had not distress on their account.

Once when they had spent the night in the wood and the dawn had roused them, they saw a beautiful child in a shining golden dress sitting near their bed. He got up and looked quite kindly at them, but said nothing and went away into the forest. And when they looked round they found that they had been sleeping quite close to a precipice, and would certainly have fallen into it in the darkness if they had gone only a few paces further. And their mother told them that it must have been the angel who watches over good children.

Snow-white kept their mother's little cottage so neat that it was a pleasure to look inside it, apart from Rose-black's room which was a nightmare of black lace and discarded clothing. In the summer Rose-black sulked inside the house with the curtains drawn, and every morning laid a wreath of thorny stems by her mother's bed before she awoke, in which was a rose from each tree. In the winter Snow-white lit the fire and hung the kettle on the wrekin. The kettle was of copper and shone like gold, so brightly was it polished, and it reminded Snow-white of the angel, who she was determined to marry and daydreamed about all the time. In the evening, when the snowflakes fell, the mother said, "Go, Snow-white, and bolt the door," and then they sat round the hearth, and the mother took her spectacles and read aloud out of a large book, and the two girls listened - well, Snow-white listened as she span, and Rose-black sat and fidgeted. And close by them lay a lamb upon the floor, and behind them upon a perch sat a white dove with its head hidden beneath its wings.

One evening, as they were thus sitting comfortably together, some one knocked at the door, as if he wished to be let in. The mother said. "Quick, Rose-black, open the door, it must be a traveller who is seeking shelter." Rose-black shuffled over to the door ungracefully and pushed back the bolt, thinking that it was a poor man who she'd then have to share her supper with because her mother was a complete push-over, but it was not; it was a bear that stretched his broad, black head within the door.

Rose-black grinned broadly and stepped aside, the lamb bleated, the dove fluttered, and Snow-white hid herself behind her mother's bed. But the bear began to speak and said, "Do not be afraid, I will do you no harm! I am half-frozen, and only want to warm myself a little beside you."

"Poor bear," said the mother, "lie down by the fire, only take care that you do not burn your coat." Then she cried, "Snow-white, Rose-black, come out, the bear will do you no harm, he means well." So they both came out, and by-and-by the lamb and dove came nearer, and the animals were not afraid of him. The bear said, "Here, children, knock the snow out of my coat a little;" so Snow-white brought the broom and swept the bear's hide clean whilst Rose-black brushed the snow off his head and ears and gazed at him with frank infatuation; and he stretched himself by the fire and growled contentedly and comfortably. It was not long before they grew quite at home, and played tricks with their clumsy guest. They tugged his hair with their hands, put their feet upon his back and rolled him about. Rose-black took a hazel-switch and threatened to beat him, saying she might as well have some fun from him stealing their place by the fire, and when he growled they laughed. But the bear took it all in good part, and when Rose-black threatened to be rough, he called out, "Just leave me alive, children! Snowy-white, Rosy-black, Will you beat your lover's back?" and then Snow-white became all hesitant and bashful while Rose-black took to it all too enthusiastically.

When it was bed-time, and Snow-white went to bed, the mother said to the bear, "You can lie there by the hearth, and then you will be safe from the cold and the bad weather." Rose-black snuck back downstairs and snuggled up to him, but was careful to be gone by the time day dawned, when Snow-white let him out, and he trotted across the snow into the forest.

Henceforth the bear came every evening at the same time, laid himself down by the hearth, and let the children amuse themselves with him as much as they liked; and they got so used to him that the doors were never fastened until their black friend had arrived.

When spring had come and all outside was green, the bear said one morning to Rose-black, "Now I must go away, and cannot come back for the whole summer."

"Where are you going, then?" asked Rose-black in a petulant fashion.

"I must go into the forest and guard my treasures from the wicked dwarfs. In the winter, when the earth is frozen hard, they are obliged to stay below and cannot work their way through; but now, when the sun has thawed and warmed the earth, they break through it, and come out to pry and steal; and what once gets into their hands, and in their caves, does not easily see daylight again."

Rose-black was devastated for his going away, and she tried to trap him in the house, locking him in the coal-cellar overnight. Eventually his plaintive cries brought Snow-white, who unlocked the door for him. As the bear was hurrying out, he caught against the bolt and a piece of his hairy coat was torn off, and it seemed to Snow-white as if she had seen gold shining through it, but she was not sure about it. The bear ran away quickly, and was soon out of sight behind the trees.

A short time afterwards the mother sent her children into the forest to get fire-wood. There they found a big tree which lay felled on the ground, and close by the trunk something was jumping backwards and forwards in the grass, but they could not make out what it was. When they came nearer they saw a dwarf with an old withered face and a snow-white beard a yard long. The end of the beard was caught in a crevice of the tree, and the little fellow was jumping backwards and forwards like a dog tied to a rope, and did not know what to do. 

He glared at the girls with his fiery red eyes and cried, "Why do you stand there? Can you not come here and help me?"

"What are you doing there, little man? Tree got your beard?" taunted Rose-black.

"You stupid, prying goose!" answered the dwarf; "I was going to split the tree to get a little wood for cooking. The little bit of food that one of us wants get burnt up directly with thick logs; we do not swallow so much as you coarse, greedy folk. I had just driven the wedge safely in, and everything was going as I wished; but the wretched wood was too smooth and suddenly sprang asunder, and the tree closed so quickly that I could not pull out my beautiful white beard; so now it is tight in and I cannot get away, and the silly, sleek, milk-faced things laugh! Ugh! how odious you are!"

Snow-white tried very hard, but she could not pull the beard out, it was caught too fast. "I will run and fetch some one," she concluded.

"You senseless goose!" snarled the dwarf; "why should you fetch some one? You are already two too many for me; can you not think of something better?"

"Hang on," said Rose-black, advancing on the dwarf with menace, "aren't you the bastards who keep robbing my bear?" and she pulled a vicious-looking knife out of her pocket, and sliced at the dwarf wildly - but she was unused to serious violence, and only managed to cut off the end of the beard.

As soon as the dwarf felt himself free he laid hold of a bag which lay amongst the roots of the tree, and which was full of gold, and lifted it up, grumbling to himself, "Uncouth people, to cut off a piece of my fine beard. Bad luck to you!" and then he swung the bag upon his back, only narrowly missing Rose-black who was forced to dodge out of the way, and raced off without looking back at the children.

Some time after that Snow-white and Rose-black went to catch a dish of fish. As they came near the brook they saw something like a large grasshopper jumping towards the water, as if it were going to leap in. They ran to it and found it was the dwarf.

"Where are you going?" taunted Rose-black; "you surely don't want to go into the water?"

"I am not such a fool!" cried the dwarf; "don't you see that the accursed fish wants to pull me in?"

The little man had been sitting there fishing, and unluckily the wind had twisted his beard with the fishing-line; just then a big, fish bit, and the feeble creature had not the strength to pull it out; the fish kept the upper hand and pulled the dwarf towards him. He held on to all the reeds and rushes, but it was of little good, he was forced to follow the movements of the fish, and was in urgent danger of being dragged into the water.

Snow-white held him fast and tried to free his beard from the line, but all in vain, beard and line were entangled fast together. "Stop getting in the way, sister!" cried Rose-black with frustration as she disentangled her knife from her pocket again, and tried to line up a good shot on the dwarf, but without endangering her beloved sister. She almost missed both entirely, merely severing another portion of the dwarf's beard.

When the dwarf saw that he screamed out, "Is that civil, you toad-stool, to disfigure one's face? Was it not enough to clip off the end of my beard? Now you have cut off the best part of it. I cannot let myself be seen by my people. I wish you had been made to run the soles off your shoes!" Then he fled, snatching up a sack of pearls which lay in the rushes, and disappeared behind a stone.

It happened that soon afterwards the mother sent the two children to the town to buy needles and thread, and laces and ribbons. The road led them across a heath upon which huge pieces of rock lay strewn here and there. Now they noticed a large bird hovering in the air, flying slowly round and round above them; it sank lower and lower, and at last settled near a rock not far off. Directly afterwards they heard a loud, piteous cry. They ran up and saw that the eagle had seized their old acquaintance the dwarf, and was going to carry him off.

Snow-white, full of pity, at once took tight hold of the little man, and pulled against the eagle so long that at last he let his booty go. As soon as the dwarf had recovered from his first fright he cried with his shrill voice, "Could you not have done it more carefully? You dragged at my brown coat so that it is all torn and full of holes, you helpless clumsy creatures!" Then he took up a sack full of precious stones and slipped away again under the rock into his hole. "You could have held him down so I could stab him," complained Rose-black. Her sister did not deign to dignify such a statement with a reply.

As they crossed the heath again on their way home they surprised the dwarf, who had emptied out his bag of precious stones in a clean spot, and had not thought that any one would come there so late. The evening sun shone upon the brilliant stones; they glittered and sparkled with all colours. "Why do you stand gaping there?" cried the dwarf, and his ashen-grey face became copper-red with rage. He was going on with his bad words (and Rose-black was cursing the useless razor blades, note pads and LPs that she kept finding in her well-stuffed pockets instead of her knife) when a loud growling was heard, and a black bear came trotting towards them out of the forest. The dwarf sprang up in a fright, but he could not get to his cave, for the bear was already close.

Then in the dread of his heart he cried, "Dear Mr. Bear, spare me, I will give you all my treasures; look, the beautiful jewels lying there! Grant me my life; what do you want with such a slender little fellow as I? you would not feel me between your teeth. Come, take these two wicked girls, they are tender morsels for you, fat as young quails; for mercy's sake eat them!" The bear took no heed of his words, but gave the wicked creature a single blow with his paw, and he did not move again.

"Snow-white and Rose-black, do not be afraid," called the bear, but Rose-black was just standing there leaning on a tree admiring the way the bear had killed the dwarf with his bare paws, and Snow-white was just a little further back still mesmerised by the pretty stones. When he came up to them suddenly his bearskin fell off, and he stood there a handsome man, clothed all in gold. "I am a King's son," he said, "and I was bewitched by that wicked dwarf, who had stolen my treasures; I have had to run about the forest as a savage bear until I was freed by his death. Now he has got his well-deserved punishment."

Rose-black looked terribly disappointed. "Oh man," she said. "You mean you're not a savage bear after all? I was kind of digging the savage bear thing, you know. And you looked better in black."

But Snow-white was besotted with him, and even the trailing Rose-black didn't hold back on collecting up the shiny things when they divided between them the great treasure which the dwarf had gathered together in his cave. The old mother lived peacefully and happily on just a fraction of the proceeds for many years in her new cottage in the grounds of the castle. She took the two rose-trees with her, and they stood before her window, and every year bore the most beautiful roses, white and black.

Snow-white married the prince, of course, and Rose-black just moved into the castle as a matter of course. In response to the rumours that she was the prince's mistress, she would simply reply, "But of course! My sister and I, we share everything." It wasn't exactly what she'd been looking for, but at least he still enjoyed letting her beat him with a hazel switch, there were endless supplies of note-paper and a very appreciative audience for her poetry. 

 


End file.
